Největší Čech


Největší Čech is the Czech spin-off of the BBC Greatest Britons show; a television poll of the populace to name the greatest Czech in history. The series was broadcast by the national public-service broadcaster, Česká televize. The presenter of the programme was Marek Eben, who was also nominated to be in the Top 100; however, since he was presenting the show he was not eligible to be included in the final list.
The counting and ranking of the nomination votes took place during January 2005; the top 100 were announced on 5 May; and the final rankings were announced on 10 June 2005. The first round was won by the fictional genius Jára Cimrman, but he was disqualified.

List of Greatest Czechs

  1. King Charles IV, Bohemian king and Emperor, founder of Charles Bridge and Charles University – 68,713 votes
  2. Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk – first Czechoslovak president – 55,040 votes
  3. Václav Havel – last Czechoslovak and first Czech president
  4. Jan Amos Komenský – 17th-century "Teacher of nations"
  5. Jan Žižka – 14th/15th-century Hussite general, leader of Czech resistance to the Roman Empire and Catholic Church
  6. Jan Werich – 20th-century actor, playwright and author
  7. Jan Hus – 14th/15th-century religious reformer
  8. Antonín Dvořák – 19th-century composer
  9. Karel Čapek – 20th-century writer, his work R.U.R. popularized the word "robot"
  10. Božena Němcová – 19th-century author of ''Babička
  11. Bedřich Smetana – 19th-century composer
  12. Emil Zátopek – 20th-century olympic athlete
  13. Karel Gott – 20th-century pop singer
  14. George of Podebrady – 15th-century utraquist king
  15. František Palacký – 19th-century historian and politician
  16. Přemysl Otakar II – 13th-century king, known as "Iron and Gold King"
  17. Saint Wenceslas – duke and patron saint of Bohemia
  18. Václav Klaus – second president of the Czech Republic
  19. Jaroslav Heyrovský – 20th-century chemist, Nobel prize laureate
  20. Saint Agnes of Bohemia – 13th-century princess and saint, founder of first Prague hospital
  21. Tomáš Baťa – 19th/20th-century first republic businessman
  22. Edvard Beneš – second Czechoslovak president
  23. Otto Wichterle – 20th-century chemist, inventor of contact lenses
  24. Jaroslav Seifert – 20th-century poet, Nobel Prize laureate
  25. Zdeněk Svěrák – 20th-century playwright, screenwriter, actor and "cimrmanologist"
  26. Ema Destinnová – 19th/20th-century opera singer
  27. Jaromír Jágr – 20th/21st-century hockey player
  28. Maria Theresa – 18th-century queen
  29. Karel Kryl – 20th-century dissident singer-songwriter
  30. Miloš Forman – 20th/21st-century film director
  31. Vlasta Burian – 20th-century actor, "king of comedians"
  32. Roman Šebrle – 20th/21st-century decathlete, Olympic athlete
  33. Ivan Hlinka – 20th-century hockey player and coach
  34. Karel Havlíček Borovský – 19th-century journalist and writer
  35. Daniel Landa – 20th/21st-century singer
  36. Milada Horáková – 20th-century victim of Nazism and later communism
  37. Vladimír Menšík – 20th-century actor
  38. Jaroslav Hašek – 19th/20th-century writer
  39. Alfons Mucha – 19th/20th-century art nouveau painter
  40. Jan Evangelista Purkyně – 19th-century biologist and physician
  41. Pavel Nedvěd – football player
  42. Jan Janský – 19th/20th-century neurologist and psychiatrist, discoverer of four blood types
  43. František Křižík – 19th/20th-century inventor, engineer and industrialist
  44. Jan Železný – 20th/21st-century Olympic athlete
  45. Jan Palach – protester against Soviet invasion of 1968
  46. Věra Čáslavská – 20th-century Olympic athlete
  47. Leoš Janáček – 19th/20th-century composer
  48. Alois Jirásek – 19th/20th-century playwright and author
  49. Jaromír Nohavica – 20th/21st-century musician
  50. Jan Masaryk – Czechoslovak secretary of foreign affairs
  51. Bohumil Hrabal – 20th-century writer
  52. Jan Neruda – 19th-century writer
  53. Josef Jungmann – 18th/19th-century linguist and translator
  54. Gregor Mendel – 19th-century geneticist, "father of genetics"
  55. Franz Kafka – 19th/20th-century writer
  56. František Tomášek – 20th-century archbishop of Prague
  57. Saint Adalbert – 10th-century saint
  58. Josef Bican – 20th-century football player
  59. Josef Kajetán Tyl – 19th-century playwright
  60. Lucie Bílá – 20th/21st-century pop singer
  61. Karel Hynek Mácha – 19th-century poet
  62. Saint Ludmila – 9th/10th-century grandmother of the Czech patron St. Wenceslas
  63. Boleslav Polívka – 20th/21st-century actor
  64. Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor – 16th/17th-century king
  65. Josef Dobrovský – 18th/19th-century philologist
  66. Josef Lada – 20th-century painter
  67. Rudolf Hrušínský – 20th-century actor
  68. Wenceslaus II of Bohemia – 13th/14th-century king
  69. Madeleine Albright – 20th-century politician, US secretary of state
  70. Aneta Langerová – 21st-century pop singer, winner of the Pop star competition
  71. Přemysl Otakar I – 12th/13th-century king, conqueror
  72. Ludvík Svoboda – 20th-century communist president
  73. Dominik Hašek – 20th/21st-century hockey player
  74. John of Luxemburg – 14th-century king, father of Charles IV
  75. Milan Baroš – 21st-century football player
  76. Karel Jaromír Erben – 19th-century poet
  77. Saint Zdislava – 13th-century saint
  78. Jaroslav Foglar – 20th-century writer
  79. Ladislav Smoljak – 20th-century actor and writer, actor and "cimrmanologist"
  80. Olga Havlová – 20th-century wife of Václav Havel, former Czechoslovak and Czech president
  81. Martina Navrátilová – 20th/21st-century tennis player
  82. Helena Růžičková – 20th-century actress
  83. Pavel Tigrid – 20th-century writer
  84. Elisabeth of Bohemia – queen
  85. Milan Kundera – 20th/21st-century writer
  86. Vladimír Remek – 20th/21st-century cosmonaut and politician
  87. Boleslav I of Bohemia – 10th-century king
  88. Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová – 19th-century writer
  89. Mikoláš Aleš – 19th/20th-century painter
  90. Emil Holub – 19th-century physician, traveler and writer
  91. František Fajtl – 20th-century aircraft pilot in World War II
  92. Klement Gottwald – First Communist president of Czechoslovakia
  93. Zdeněk Matějček – 20th-century pediatrician
  94. Jiří Voskovec – 20th-century actor
  95. Marta Kubišová – 20th/21st-century singer and actress
  96. Jiřina Bohdalová – 20th/21st-century actress
  97. Miloslav Šimek – 20th/21st-century actor
  98. Sigmund Freud – 19th/20th-century psychiatrist, teacher of Carl Gustav Jung
  99. Samo – 7th-century ruler of the so-called Samo's Realm
  100. Miloš Zeman – Third Czech president

    The Greatest Villain

At the same time as the nominations, an Internet vote for the greatest villain of Czech history was held. The top ten were:
  1. Klement Gottwald – first Communist president of Czechoslovakia
  2. Stanislav Gross – 20th/21st-century politician, Czech Republic PM
  3. Václav Klaus – 20th/21st-century politician, president of Czech Republic
  4. Vladimír Železný – 20th/21st-century television businessman, founder of TV Nova, charged with an extensive tunnelling fraud
  5. Miroslav Kalousek – 20th/21st-century politician, leader of Christian Democratic party
  6. Miroslav Grebeníček – leader of Communist Party of Moravia and Bohemia
  7. Viktor Kožený – 20th/21st-century financial figure, fugitive financier, nicknamed "the pirate of Prague"
  8. Milouš Jakeš – 20th-century politician, General Secretary of Czechoslovak Communist Party before and during Velvet Revolution
  9. Zdeněk Škromach – former minister of work and social affairs
  10. Gustáv Husák – 20th-century politician, last Communist president of Czechoslovakia

    Jára Cimrman

The first round of official voting for Greatest Czech was won by the fictional character Jára Cimrman created by Czech humorists Jiří Šebánek, Zdeněk Svěrák and Ladislav Smoljak. The fact that he is not a real person disqualified him from taking the title, as the rules stated that "it is only possible to vote for someone who was either born on, lived on, or in any way acted on the soil of Bohemia, Moravia or Czech Silesia."